An experimental breast-augmentation technique that uses a person鈥檚 own fat may be safer and achieve a more natural look and feel than traditional silicone implants. It has already shown promise for reconstructing breasts after silicone implant removal and is now being trialled in first-time breast augmentations.
The procedure involves liposuction to harvest fat from another part of the body, like the thighs. The fat is then injected into porous scaffolds, shaped like bra cups, that have been inserted inside the breasts. Over time, the fat cells multiply and fill the scaffolds, which gradually degrade, leaving just the person鈥檚 own tissue in the desired new shape.
鈥淧roviding this as an option 鈥� where you can actually unlock the patient鈥檚 own body and regenerate their own tissue, and ultimately have no footprint of anything that鈥檚 left of the scaffold in a year or two 鈥� to me, that鈥檚 remarkable,鈥� says at Macquarie University in Sydney, who is leading a clinical trial of the new technique in 53 individuals undergoing first-time breast augmentations.
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Deva performed the surgical procedure on the trial鈥檚 first participant earlier this week. 鈥淭hankfully, so far, everything is going well,鈥� he says.
The absorbable scaffolds were developed by at Queensland University of Technology in Australia, starting in 2010. He was part of a research group that was making scaffolds for orthopaedic applications and wondered if similar ones could be used in breast reconstructions.
鈥淢y grandma had a lumpectomy for breast cancer in India in the 1990s, and there were no good options available for reconstructing the volume she lost, so I knew growing up this was a challenge for a lot of breast cancer patients,鈥� he says. Chhaya has since set up a company called BellaSeno to further develop the product.
The scaffolds are made from lightweight 3D-printed polycaprolactone, a biodegradable polymer that has long been used in聽absorbable sutures. 鈥淭he scaffolds have a filamentous structure with crisscrossed lines that act like little highways for cells to proliferate along,鈥� says Chhaya. Cells from the introduced fat and existing tissue grow into the scaffold, forming an integrated mix of fat, connective tissue and blood vessels, like in natural breast tissue, he says.
The scaffolds have already been tested in a involving 19 participants at the Comprehensive Breast Cancer Institute in Brisbane, who required breast reconstructions after having silicone implants removed due to complications.
This trial showed it takes about a year for new tissue to fill the scaffolds, then another one or two years for the scaffolds to dissolve and get absorbed by the body, says Chhaya. The breasts feel unusually firm at first, but then soft and natural as the scaffold breaks down, he says. 聽
鈥淐linicians who are looking at MRI scans in these patients a few years after receiving these scaffolds would say they were simply looking at normal breast tissue,鈥� says Deva. The scaffolds were also found to be safe, with no infections or other complications reported.
The results of the trial were at the annual meeting of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery in Boston in May, but haven鈥檛 been published in a peer-reviewed journal.
, a breast surgeon in Adelaide, Australia, in April that he was sceptical of BellaSeno鈥檚 scaffolds because 鈥渢here is very little real information or data available鈥� on them. Porous scaffolds tend to fill with scar tissue rather than desired breast tissue, he wrote. 鈥淯ntil someone puts that data in front of me and provides both imaging, pathology and clinical in-vivo evidence that this is what they say it is, I am going to hang onto some doubts.鈥�
Several groups are looking for alternatives to silicone implants, since they have a risk of rupturing and causing pain, discomfort and other complications, and usually need to be replaced every 10 to 20 years. 鈥淎s certain as the night follows day, we tell a patient, 鈥榳e鈥檙e putting [a silicone implant] in today, you need to get them checked and at some point, we鈥檙e probably going to have to revise the surgery鈥�,鈥� says Deva. 鈥淚t would just be wonderful to be able to offer [the new scaffolds] to women as an alternative.鈥�
